University of Massachusets Athletics
Field Hockey Hosts Stanford In NCAA Play-In
November 08, 2010 | Field Hockey
Nov. 8, 2010
AMHERST, Mass. - Fresh off its third Atlantic 10 title in the last four years, the UMass field hockey returns to Garber Field on Tuesday to host Stanford in an NCAA play-in game at 1 p.m. The winner advances to the 16-team field of the NCAA Championship, to be announced at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Minutewomen defeated No. 2 seed Lock Haven, 2-0 on Saturday to give the top-seed UMass its 12th A-10 title and third in Justine Sowry's four seasons as head coach. UMass defeated host and No. 4 seed Temple, 1-0 in overtime in Friday's semifinal game.
Stanford, coached by UMass alum Tara (Jelley) Danielson, defeated California, 2-0 on Saturday to win its fourth-straight Northern Pacific Conference title. The Cardinal is 14-5 overall and has won five games in a row.
UMass is riding an 11-game winning streak, tied for the second-longest active streak in the country. Rider currently holds the nation's longest active streak at 13 games, while Maryland has also won 11 in a row. The Minutewomen have not lost in over a month, going back to a Sept. 26 loss to Albany. The streak began with an Oct. 3, 2-0 win over No. 8 Syracuse.
A-10 CHAMPS AGAIN!
Minutewomen Win A-10 Championship
After a disappointing end to the 2009 season broke its string of two-straight Atlantic 10 Championships, UMass returned to the top of the conference in 2010, going a perfect 7-0 in A-10 regular season play before defeating No. 4 seed and host Temple, 1-0 in overtime, and No. 2 seed Lock Haven in the finals, 2-0 at Geasey Field last weekend.
Jaime Bourazeris scored a first half goal, Alexa Sikalis added an insurance goal late in the game, and the defense put in a stellar performance to lead UMass (15-6) to a 2-0 victory over Lock Haven (15-7) at Geasey Field to claim the Minutewomen's third A-10 Championship in four years.
Sikalis was named A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player, while she was joined on the All-Championship Team by teammates Katie Kelly and Makaela Potts.
In Friday's semifinals, Lindsay Bowman scored off a pass from Katie Kelly 3:14 into overtime to break a scoreless tie and send UMass to the finals by defeating Temple (9-12), 1-0. UMass completely controlled play throughout the game, outshooting the host Owls, 21-3, and drawing 12 penalty corners to Temple's three, but just as she did in their regular season meeting, a 1-0 UMass victory, Temple goalkeeper Sarah Dalrymple kept her team in the game, making 10 saves.
The Minutewomen are 30-9 (.757) all-time in A-10 Tournament games, including a 18-3 record in the semifinals and a 12-6 record in the finals.
Justine Sowry is 6-1 in A-10 tourney games, winning her first four game for A-10 titles in 2007 and 2008 before falling in last year's semifinals to Richmond.
EIGHT MINUTEWOMEN NAMED TO A-10 ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
Complete A-10 All-Conference Release
Head Coach Justine Sowry, senior defender Makaela Potts, and junior goalkeeper Alesha Widdall led a total of 12 UMass honors when the Atlantic 10 announced its All-Conference field hockey teams last week. Sowry was named A-10 Coach of the Year for the third time in four seasons, while Potts repeated as A-10 Defensive Player of the Year and Widdall was named A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year. The Minutewomen placed four players on the All-Conference first team.
Potts, who became just the second UMass player to ever win Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2009 (after Anke Bruemmer in 2001), made it back-to-back honors in 2010 while also being named to the All-Conference First Team. Joining Potts on the first team are senior defender Jaime Bourazeris, senior midfielder Katie Kelly, and junior goalkeeper Widdall, giving UMass a conference-high four on the first team.
Junior transfer defender Thando Zono was named to the All-Conference Second Team in her first season in the Maroon & White.
UMass also had a league-high three freshmen named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team. Forward Lindsay Bowman, defender Hannah Prince, and midfielder Alexa Sikalis comprise the largest All-Rookie Team class in UMass program history.
Kelly and Widdall were also honored by being named to the Academic All-Conference Team.
ATLANTIC 10 PLAY
Under Justine Sowry, the Minutewomen are 22-4 in Atlantic 10 regular season games, including a stellar 12-1 mark at Garber Field.
Including A-10 Tournament games, UMass is 27-5 against conference foes under Sowry. All-time, UMass is 96-24-1 (.798) in A-10 regular season games and 30-9 (.769) in tournament games. The Minutewomen have won a conference-best 13 regular season conference titles and 12 tournament championships.
SERIES HISTORY
Massachusetts is 2-1 all-time against Stanford, including a 2-0 record at Garber Field in 1992 (3-1) and 1896 (1-0). The teams haven't met since 2006, when the Cardinal defeated the Minutewomen 2-1 in Palo Alto.
SCOUTING STANFORD
Stanford is 14-5 overall and went 5-1 in the NorPac. The Cardinal defeated Appalachian State (10-3), Longwood (3-0), and California (2-0) to win its fourth-straight conference title and advance to Tuesday's NCAA play-in game.
Stanford and UMass share just two common opponents in 2010, Syracuse and Northeastern. The Minutewomen defeated the No. 8 Orange, 2-0 on Oct. 3, one week before Syracuse defeated Stanford, 2-1 in overtime in Albany, N.Y. UMass picked up its first win of the season on Sept. 3 at Northeastern, 2-1. The Huskies knocked off the Cardinal, 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 18 in Boston.
Stanford is led by a trio of British players. Sophomore defender Becky Dru leads the team in goals (13), assists (9), points (35), and shots (83). Xanthe Travlos is second on the club with eight goals and five assists for 21 points. Senior defender Camille Ghandi, an NFHCA All-American in 2009, anchors the defense while contributing two goals and five assists.
Junior forward Stephanie Byrne has scored six goals in 2010, five of which were game-winners.
Junior Alessandra Moss has seen the bulk of the minutes in goal, posting a 13-5 record with a .762 save percentage and a 1.22 goals against average.
Tara (Jelley) Danielson is in her first year as head coach of the Cardinal. The Greenfield, Mass. native graduated from UMass in 1994 after excelling for the Minutewomen for four years, captaining the team as a senior. She led UMass to two A-10 titles and four NCAA Tournaments, was an NFHCA All-American in 1993, and played on the US National Team from 1998-2005.
KELLY MAKING MARK ON UMASS RECORD BOOK
Senior captain Katie Kelly leads the Minutewomen this season with 11 goals and nine assists for 31 points. Her 93 career points is sixth-best all-time at UMass after passing Megan Donnelly (1982-85) and Laura O'Neil (1977-80) in the last two weeks. Her 36 goals is now tied for seventh-best all-time with Pam Moryl (1981-84).
Kelly is moving up the the career assist rankings at UMass, as well. Kelly, a 2009 and 2010 Atlantic 10 First-Team selection, has 21 assists, which ranks eighth all-time. Jaime Bourazeris and Makaela Potts each have 17 assists, and could break into the top-10 leaderboard with two assists against Stanford.
Kelly now has double-digit goal totals in three-straight years after 11 each in 2008 and 2009.
THE WIDDALL WALL
Junior goalkeeper Alesha Widdall is once again among the nation's goalkeeping elite. Her .800 save percentage ranks sixth nationally while her 1.02 goals against average ranks seventh. She also leads the A-10 in both save percentage and goals against average. As a team, UMass enters the week with the nation's second-best save percentage (.804) and sixth-best GAA (1.02).
Widdall ranks third among all active goalies in career save percentage (.786) and sixth in goals against average (1.18). She also ranks seventh in minutes played, coming in as the first non-senior on the list.
The three-time A-10 All-Conference First-Teamer and 2008 All-American has eight shutouts on the season and 21 in the junior's career.
FAB FRESHMEN
With a freshmen class of 10, many new Minutewomen have stepped in and played leading roles immediately. Four different UMass freshmen have been named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week this season, claiming the award four out of ten weeks.
Forward Lindsay Bowman (Sept. 14), forward Molly MacDonnell (Oct. 5), midfielder Alexa Sikalis (Oct. 12), and Mika Black (Oct. 26) have all won A-10 Rookie of the Week this season.
Also among UMass' talented freshmen making extensive contributions is defender Hannah Prince, who has started every game in the backfield, recording the second-most minutes played on the team (1,212) behind Makaela Potts.
UMASS NOTEBOOK
Senior Makaela Potts has five goals and three assists on the seasonbut the two-time NFHCA All-American's true value isn't measured on the stat sheet. A key component on both the offensive and defensive corner units, Potts is also relied upon to be UMass' primary ball-mover and playmaker from the back and midfield lines.
Kelly (72) and Potts (82) have accounted for 154 of the team's 315 shots (48.8 percent). The next closest to them is Thando Zono with 28.
Since returning from an injury on October 15, junior Thando Zono has six goals in her last five games. The transfer from Rhodes University scored both goals against Richmond, including the overtime winner, and netted the first two tallies against Saint Joseph's to spark the Minutewomen.
Freshman forward Lindsay Bowman has four goals in 2010, the biggest coming last weekend when she sent the Minutewomen into the Atlantic 10 Championship game with her overtime goal against Temple. Bowman scored the first two goals of her career on Sept.11-12, and they were big ones. On Sept. 11, she scored the game's lone goal in the 1-0 victory over No. 4 UConn. On the following day, she scored the game-tying goal with 6:04 remaining before UMass eventually won in overtime at Yale. Bowman was named A-10 Rookie of the Week and UMass Co-Athlete of the Week with football quarterback Kyle Havens.
Among those joining Bowman on UMass' very young forward line are sophomore Nicole Cordero (2 goals, 4 assists), sophomore Kim Young (2 goals), and freshmen Molly MacDonnell (2 goals) and Alexa Sikalis (1 goal, 1 assist). Cordero recorded two assists in the 2-0 win over the No. 8 Orange, while MacDonnell scored her first career goal in that game.
Senior defender Jaime Bourazeris has three goals and seven assists on the season. Her first goal was the game-winner in a 2-1 game at Northeastern and her second was the game-winner in the Minutewomen's 2-0 win over No. 8 Syracuse. She also scored a first-half goal to pace UMass in their 2-0 win over Lock Haven in the A-10 Championship game. UMass returns nine starters from the 2009 team. Head Coach Justine Sowry also welcomes 11 new players in 2010, 10 freshmen and one transfer.
Sowry, in her fourth year as head coach, has a career record of 58-29 and has been named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year three times (2007, 2008 and 2010) and was named Northeast Region Coach of the Year in 2008.
UMASS TAKING ON THE BEST
UMass' aggressive scheduling has paid off as the Minutewomen have come in at the No. 14 spot in the latest NCAA RPI report release on Nov. 8. UMass is the fourth-highest non-BCS conference school in the RPI. The Minutewomen have been in the top 15 in five of the six RPI reports in 2010.
The Minutewomen have defeated two ranked teams in 2010, both top 10 squads from the Big East: No. 4 UConn, 1-0 (Sept. 11), and No. 8 Syracuse, 2-0 (Oct. 3).
Four of UMass' losses have come by one goal and all six have come to teams that were either ranked at the time or are currently ranked (No. 9 Boston College, 1-0; No. 17 Indiana, 2-1; current No. 17 Boston University, 2-1; No. 18 American, 2-0; No. 2 Maryland, 3-0; and No. 19 Albany, 2-1).
UMASS SHUTS OUT THE ORANGE
Jaime Bourazeris scored in the first half, Molly MacDonnell scored a second-half goal, and Alesha Widdall made 11 saves to lead UMass field hockey (5-6) to a 2-0 victory over No. 8 Syracuse (7-4) on Oct. 3 afternoon at Garber Field. The win comes on Head Coach Justine Sowry's birthday and is the Minutewomen first win over the Orange since 1998, snapping a string of 12 Orange wins in the series.
The win served as a fitting birthday present to Sowry who had been 0-4 against Syracuse coming into the game.
No. 8 Syracuse is the second top 10 ranked Big East team the Minutewomen have upset in 2010. UMass defeated No. 4 Connecticut, 1-0 on Sept. 11, also at Garber Field. Both UMass goals were set up on passes by Nicole Cordero, the first two assists of the sophomore forward's career. Widdall made a season-high 11 saves in goal and made a spectacular diving stop on a penalty stroke by Syracuse's Martina Loncarica with 2:11 left in the game to keep the shutout. It is the junior's third shutout of the season and 16th of her career.
MINUTEWOMEN UPSET NO. 4 UCONN
Lindsay Bowman scored the first goal of her career off a pass from fellow freshman Mika Black to lead UMass to the upset victory over No. 4 UConn, 1-0, on Sept. 11 at Garber Field.
It was the Minutewomen's first victory over the Huskies since 2000, a span of 11 games. It is also the highest ranked opponent UMass has defeated in the Justine Sowry era, replacing last season's win over No. 9 Iowa.
UMass last defeated UConn on Sept. 30, 2000, 2-1, in Amherst. The Huskies had won the last 10 meetings.
The win was also the highest-ranked opponent UMass has beaten in 14 years, dating back to a 3-2 double-overtime victory over No. 4 James Madison on Sept. 14, 1996 in Iowa City, Iowa.
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